Prior to our last session we'd managed to level up to level 5 which meant the addition of a new daily power. I wasn't terribly excited by any of my choices and got convinced to take an ability which allows 2 of my allies to make an immediate free charge for an extra d10 damage. It also gives them +2 to their attack and damage rolls for the rest of the fight while charging. Coupled with a magic item I found on the list which prevents charges from granting opportunity attacks and on paper this seems like a lot of damage. There's a barbarian and a knight in the party and they both get to make real attacks while charging, and the barbarian gets to make a free charge after killing someone. This means the +2 to hit and damage could really add up to an awful lot over the course of a fight.
We did some fights that night. The first one was pretty easy and even though I saw an ok spot to use the ability I wanted to save it since it was a daily. Then we did a series of fairly rough fights and I was going to use it the first time I could ever give both people a free charge that they could use. It never came up. One of the characters is the tank so he's trying to stand beside all enemies if he can. The other reduces his own ac when he attacks so he wants to stand near the tank for protection. And is therefore also near all the enemies. It doesn't help that we're fighting in an underground maze and often have the entire width of the hall (a whole 1 or 2 squares) filled with dudes so there's no path for charging. Also they're both smelly dwarves who move slow.
I had visions of the ability being awesome, but those visions generally involved the two fighters standing 4 squares apart, each fighting a guy, and charging back and forth between the two enemies. This is certainly the way to maximize the power from my daily but it's just not how we want to be fighting. We also have a rogue in the group and he wants to be nearby to get combat advantage. We want to focus down one guy at a time. Sure, we want to run up to the casters or the archers and beat them up but the team can do that anyway without my daily helping out. (Also with all our eggs in the 'charge a lot' basket the monsters can take positions to make charging worse.) Probably the best actual use would be when I go first in a fight, and there are monsters within 5 squares of the melee, and I get them to go in and attack. Problem is, my initiative bonus is abysmally bad and I tend to go last in the fight. Beating the monsters has been really unlikely thus far. I guess I could hold onto the daily and use it the first fight I roll high on, but then I'm just making one fight easier and I don't get to pick which one.
We ended up actually leveling at the end of that session too, up to level 6. This gave me a new feat and a new utility power, and there was one that actually combos very well with the charging daily... Minor action to shift all allies beside my pet and myself 5 squares. Assuming I can squeeze my pet in beside both melee I can send them to good charge locations and send them in for the extra 2d10 damage. It combos so well I can't imagine keeping the charge daily without also taking the shift daily. But is the shift utility daily overshadowed by anything else? It turns out there are lots of options that excite me here.
As an encounter minor action I can give 2 people saving throws. This seems like really great utility and being an encounter power it will get a lot more use. However it turns out there's a feat I can take which gives everyone targeted by any of my healing powers a saving throw too, and I have a lot of those I can toss out if I really need to generate a saving throw right now.
As a daily minor action I can give someone a healing surge + d6 and anyone beside my pet for the rest of the fight can't grant combat advantage. Now, my level 2 utility gives someone a healing surgeless heal and I don't think I've ever needed to use it yet. I like having it sitting in my pocket in case it's needed (and it's a standard action so it's worse than this) but it doesn't seem critical. Possibly I could take this and swap out for a different level 2 utility.
There's a daily minor action which heals my team for d6 each and lets people use second winds as minor actions. If my team wasn't half smelly dwarf then this seems like it could be really good. As is, not as exciting.
And finally there's the one that really excites me as something I hope to never use but will be completely game changing if it happens. A daily interrupt that triggers on my getting knocked down to 0 health. It lets every ally within 10 squares spend a healing surge (which I think should bring other knocked out people back to life) and gives them +2 to hit the guy who knocked me out for a turn. If I die first this seems a little weak, but if we're ever actually going to lose a fight this seems like it could really turn the tide. It could be in the neighbourhood of 55 healing, 0-3 saving throws, 0-3 recoveries from knock out, and some bonus damage. People keep talking about how the final fight in the module is brutally powerful and it seems like everything else is doable as is. So if my goal is to set up to beat the final boss then I want the most game changing abilities to use in that fight. I can't see it getting more game changing than this. (The healing will be even more in the final fight since I imagine we'll gain another level or two and maybe I'll even get a better healing neck.)
By that logic shouldn't I keep the swingiest level 5 daily, too? Maybe the charge power is hard to set up but when it really counts can't I rely on my teammates to do what it takes to spread out at the start so they can get their permanent +2 to hit and damage? It really depends on the specifics of that fight. If there are a bunch of powerful dudes all willing to stand a few spaces apart so they can be pinballed around, yes. If it's just one huge dude then there's a daily power I could take to give a permanent +2 to hit one guy. Or I could take a power that blinds him. Maybe the penultimate fight will be tricky and I'll want a different daily for that fight. It's hard to say. But for now I think I want to try something else out. I spent a day looking at my Sir Charge-A-Lot card and being sad that I couldn't use it. I'm not going to look at the death trigger ability and long to get to use it. I'm going to be happy it's there. But it does fill the same safety blanket role as my old level 2 utility, so I'm going to try changing that too:
level 2 utility daily minor - create a 121 square zone filled with spirits for the whole fight, all allies get +1 to hit when standing in the zone
level 5 daily standard - nuke a 9 square zone for a bunch of damage and slide things 5 spaces, I get to slide 6 spaces before or after attacking (I never move as it is, so having a way to move might do something!).
level 6 utility daily interrupt - heal everyone when I die
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